Pesticides in Your Produce

Everybody knows that you should eat your fruits and vegetables. But do you also know which ones could contain dangerous levels of pesticides? The health benefits of a diet rich in fruits and vegetables far outweigh the risks of pesticide exposure. Use EWG's (Environmental Working Group)Shopper's Guide to Pesticides  (a download from our weekly newsletter)  to reduce your exposures as much as possible, but eating conventionally-grown produce is far better than not eating fruits and vegetables at all. 


The Environmental Working Group  (EWG) is an American environmental organization that specializes in research and advocacy in the areas of toxic chemicals, environmental studies and corporate accountability.
 
The Shopper's Guide to Pesticide in Produce will help you determine which fruits and vegetables have the most pesticide residues and are the most important to buy organic. You can and should lower your pesticide intake substantially by avoiding the 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables and eating the least contaminated produce. 


If you get our Email Newsletter, you can download a guide to print out and fold for your wallet or purse. Get on our email newsletter list from our website www.b2hc.com. A recent CNN article also addressed this growing concern. Check it out here. Oh and if you wonder whether pesticides are bad for you...just ask the bugs.

There is an interesting relationship between most produce farmers and the pesticide industry. Read the EWG article here for more about that.

The Dirty Dozen: The Produce with the Highest Level of Pesticide Content

Buy these fruits and veggies organic (1. = Highest Pesticide Content)

1. Apples
2. Celery
3. Strawberries
4. Peaches
5. Spinach
6. Imported Nectarines
7. Imported Grapes
8. Sweet bell peppers
9. Potatoes
10. Domestic Blueberries
11. Lettuce
12. Kale / Collard Greens

Clean 15

Lowest fruits and veggies in pesticide content (1. = Lowest Pesticide Content)

1. Onion
2. Sweet Corn (Buy Organic if you are concerned about GMO Corn)
3. Pineapples
4. Avocado
5. Asparagus
6. Sweet Peas
7. Mangoes
8. Eggplant
9. Domestic Cantaloupe
10. Kiwi
11. Cabbage
12. Watermelon
13. Sweet Potatoes
14. Grapefruit
15. Mushrooms

Scrubbing Your Veggies

Like many people out there I try to buy organic foods, but it's hard to do all the time. Unfortunately, if your not 100% sure where your food was grown there's a chance it's been covered in pesticides and herbicides.

I'm definately trying to avoid as much of those toxic chemicals as possible!

According to this great article from suite101.com , there are a number of ways to clean your fruits and vegetables, and it turns out that a water and vinegar mixture is the most effective method to do the job.

Here's the paragraph describing a few of the details.

The editors of Cooks Illustrated magazine tested this theory by using four different methods to clean pears and apples: a vinegar and water solution (3:1, water:vinegar), antibacterial liquid soap, scrubbing with a stiff brush, and just using plain water. Not only did the vinegar mixture work the best, it was far, far better when measured for bacteria -- it removed 98% of bacteria, compared to just under 85% for scrubbing.

Be sure to read the Suite101 article to get all the details of how to make the inexpensive home version so you can make the best of everything you cook.